Erika
Erika is a Vampire maid, a social-climbing courtier obsessed with rising through the ranks of her Coven. She is first seen in the Vampires' mansion as an attendant to the Coven regent Kraven, seeking his attention. Biography Erika was made a Vampire 27 years before the events of Underworld in Piccadilly (London). Though Kraven was the one who turned her, he treats her as little more than an unimportant servant, and her overtures of affections are thwarted by the regent's infatuation with another Vampire, a Death Dealer named Selene. Despite this, she has struck up something bordering on a friendship with Selene, freely expressing her opinion about Selene's ruminating and Selene in turn seeming to reluctantly tolerate her presence and sharing some personal thoughts of her own. It is unknown if Kraven has Erika often acting as Selene's attendant against both their wishes and this is the reason for their mutual civility, or if Erika is perfectly willing, perhaps hoping to gain from Selene something that will earn her Kraven's favor in return. Erika is a non-aggressive, chatty Vampire, who prefers the comforts of Ördögház over any kind of killing or fighting. Despite this, Erika respects and admires the Death Dealers, and is excited when she gets to hold a gun used by the Death Dealer leader, Kahn. ''Underworld'' Erika follows Kraven to the Death Dealers' area of the mansion after he hears the news that Selene has found a Lycan lair. There, Kraven and Selene argue heatedly, and Selene storms off. Erika assures Kraven that she would never treat him like that, but Kraven dismisses her and orders her to find Selene and to help her prepare for the arrival of Amelia. Upset, Erika begins to cry and smashes a statue of Kraven. She composes herself and heads off to follow Kraven's orders. She comes upon Selene in the Elders' Chamber and attempts to chat politely with her. Selene initially decides that Erika has more to her than it appears, but then Erika calls Kraven cute, and Selene loses what little respect she might have had for the maid. Erika is able to convince Selene to return to her room so that she can prepare for the party being held for Amelia's envoy. However, Selene largely ignores her once in the room and spends her time looking at pictures of a group of Lycans she had hunted earlier that night. Kraven enters and orders Erika to leave the room. She does so, and by the time she returns, Selene has fled the room against Kraven's orders. Erika finds Kraven and informs him of this, causing him to leave the speech being held by Dmitri, Amelia's envoy. The next night, Erika hears rumors that Selene has returned to the mansion with a human named Michael Corvin. Kraven hears the same gossip, and orders Erika to go to Selene's room and fetch her for him. Erika gives Selene Kraven's message, then remains in the room after Selene's departure. Curious about the man lying unconscious on Selene's couch, Erika watches over him, possibly with sexual intentions, and discovers a wound that she initially thinks is a sign that Selene has bitten the man, making him a Vampire. To her horror, Erika realizes that the wound is actually a Lycan bite, and she becomes frightened when Michael opens his eyes. She flies up onto the ceiling and hisses at Michael, scaring him into jumping out of the window and escaping. Before Erika can tell either Kraven or Selene what happened, Kraven angrily commands her to leave the room. Terrified of the obvious rage on Kraven's face, Erika obeys and flees the room. Later, Erika tracks down Selene as she is leaving the mansion's library. She initially tries to be civil with Selene, but the older Vampire blows her off. Erika then cries out that Michael has been bitten, and that he is now a Lycan. Selene dismisses her, believing that Erika has been ordered by Kraven to lie about Michael, but Erika protests that she is telling the truth. Selene becomes upset and leaves the room quickly. This, combined with a statement Selene made the previous night, leads Erika to believe that Selene is falling in love with Michael and that she intends to see him again. Erika warns Selene that meeting with Michael again would be "against the Covenant", but, as always, she is ignored. Erika decides not to say anything to Kraven about the incident until she learns that Selene has awakened the Vampire Elder Viktor. She follows Kraven into the Elders' Chamber and informs him of Michael's affliction, causing Kraven to scream in rage. Kraven's yells attract the attention of Viktor, who appears and tells Erika to leave the room. Erika is horrified by the sight of Viktor, as she was unaware of the drained, corpse-like appearance of Elders when they first awaken. Erika waits for Kraven the entire time he speaks with Viktor and then becomes his sounding board as he vents his frustrations over Selene's disregard for him. Kraven decides that Erika is to be used as part of his plot to kill the three Vampire Elders and establish himself as the ruler of the Coven, and tells her to come to his room later. Upon arriving there, Erika removes her shirt and seduces Kraven. Kraven bites Erika and drains her of most of her blood, but leaves suddenly when he receives a call saying Selene has returned to the mansion. Hurt and humiliated, Erika limps weakly from his room. After redressing, Erika follows Kraven and watches as he locks Selene in her room. She becomes enraged when Kraven refers to Selene as his "future queen", and begins to plot revenge against him. Erika finds the switch that controls power to the entire mansion and flips it, plunging Ördögház into darkness and setting off the alarm. She then gathers Selene's things and rushes to her room, where she releases her. Selene looks at the keys handed to her by Erika quizzically, then asks why Erika is helping her. Erika responds, "I'm not. I'm helping me." Selene acknowledges this reasoning and jumps from the mansion window. Erika then runs to Kraven and tells him that Selene left to be with Michael. Much to Erika's surprise, Selene later returns to the mansion. Even worse, she arrives with proof that Kraven has been making plans with the Lycans to overthrow the Coven's leadership and that Kraven never actually killed the powerful Lycan Lucian as he said he did. Upon realizing that he would soon be tortured and killed if he remained at the mansion, Kraven flees. Before he leaves, he seeks out Erika and asks her to find the silver nitrate gun for him. Erika is excited by this, as she does not yet know the depth of the trouble Kraven is in. She carries the gun to Kraven and tries to get into the car with him, dreaming all the while of the two of them going on the run together. However, Kraven shoves her out of the car and slams the door in her face. Realizing once again that she has been used, Erika turns and angrily walks back into the mansion. ''Underworld: Evolution'' Erika appears only in a brief flashback of her sexual encounter with Kraven in Underworld: Evolution. Her whereabouts are never explored, but she was likely killed during the raid and burning down of her Coven's mansion by the Vampire Elder Marcus Corvinus. Personality Erika is ambitious and attention-seeking, but somewhat naive, submissive and easily manipulated. She constantly praises and tries to please higher-ranking Vampires, in particular, Kraven, her maker, who she adores. One of her paramount goals is seducing Kraven and she stubbornly persists in this goal, despite Kraven ignoring her most of the time and clearly preferring Selene over her. Erika is usually good-natured and rather flirtatious, but she reacts with aggression born of fear when she realizes Michael is a Lycan. This, coupled with her excitement at being handed a gun, indicates she is inexperienced in fighting. She is also increasingly frustrated by Kraven's lack of attention towards her. Erika does have a rebellious streak in her, as she shuts down the power in the mansion to help Selene escape, also showing a certain level of cunning. Erika primarily does what she believes to be in her own best interests, indicating she is rather self-centered, though she tries to be kind and helpful to Selene and Kraven (this, however, may be born more from a desire to win their favour than true altruism). Relationships Kraven Kraven is the one who turned Erika into a Vampire. As such, she practically worships him, constantly seeking his attention and approval. Erika's near-obsession with Kraven appears to be a combination of infatuation and personal desire to move up the social hierarchy. Erika continues to try and win Kraven's affections, despite his dismissive attitude towards her and obvious favouring of Selene. Erika is shown to be jealous and frustrated by this but remains persistent. Erika often compliments Kraven and tries to comfort or assist him, even letting him drink her blood. She is shown to be hurt and angry by his continued rejection of her. Her final thought in the Underworld novelization ("I wonder if Viktor likes blondes") indicates that after his final betrayal of her, she had given up on her unrequited love for him him. Selene Erika appears to be the closest thing Selene has to a friend. Their acquaintance is a somewhat odd one; Erika is clearly jealous of Selene because of Kraven's infatuation with her, while Selene generally treats Erika as coldly as she does everyone else, but they appear to tolerate each other. Erika is actually kind to Selene on a number of occasions, finding her a dress to wear and trying to encourage her to mingle with other Vampires, and seems to approve of her relationship with Michael Corvin (prior to learning he was a Lycan). Erika helps Selene to escape the mansion after she is placed under house arrest, though she remarks that she is doing it to help herself, by removing Selene as an obstacle to Kraven's affections. It is plausible that Erika mainly befriended Selene to try and gain Kraven's approval. Quotes Trivia *Director Len Wiseman has stated that the scene of Erika hissing at Michael is the most popular scene in the entire film. *Though actress Sophia Myles wore the same size teeth caps as all of the other Vampire actors, Erika's fangs appear to be longer than anyone else's. Len Wiseman comments on this puzzling fact in the DVD commentary. *Erika's eyes are described as being violet in the novel, although they are blue in the film. *Ironically, Sophia Myles went on to portray Beth Turner, a human woman who falls in love with a vampire in the television series Moonlight. Gallery es:Erika fr:Erika ru:Эрика (Другой мир) Category:Characters Category:Underworld characters Category:Evolution characters Category:Eternal War characters Category:Female characters Category:Vampires Category:Status unknown Category:Featured articles